Monday, September 22, 2008

I want English, lah

This is a letter I wrote a few weeks back, supposedly for theStar. I mailed it to the editor, but it never saw the daylight of publication :(

Too long? Too controversial (haha, I'm beginning to reek of controversies)? You be the judge. Censure me in your wisdom, and all that. I wrote the letter in about an hour, so it's not exactly Martin Luther King. All the same, I put my views forward and if you like, you can do so too. There's a handy little 'comment' button down there :)




As of late, much has been said regarding the role of English as a teaching medium for Science and Mathematics in our current education system. More recently, we’ve had many worried parents expressing their concerns on the apparent indecisiveness of the government on the medium of teaching for the two subjects.

In 2002, the government announced its decision for the introduction of English as the medium for teaching Science and Mathematics, two subjects that were constantly evolving and changing. The decision was based on the justification an English medium would better prepare Malaysian students for a world that was rapidly being globalised. The teaching of Science and Mathematics in English, while not a new concept has only been implemented since 2003 and already there is talk of reverting back to Bahasa Malaysia for teaching.

If we are indeed to revert to Bahasa, let us first examine the rationale for this decision. Firstly, it has been claimed that many teachers are incompetent for the teaching of Science and Mathematics in English. This comes as no surprise, as even veteran teachers would have initial difficulty in adapting to the new method of teaching. Moreover, the younger and less experienced teachers would have even greater difficulties adapting, considering most of their training was facilitated in Bahasa Malaysia (verify claim). However, should these teachers truly be competent and well-versed with their knowledge of their subjects, it should be a relatively simple to acclimatize themselves to the new teaching environment.

Unfortunately, many parents still have qualms about the standard of teaching being imparted to their children. Clearly, the issue of competence among our school teachers has to be addressed. It is foolhardy to abolish the current system because of this. Put in perspective, the move could be likened to refusing medicine simply because it was difficult to swallow it. Furthermore, if there is a genuine inability on the part of the teacher to teach adequately in English, reverting back to Bahasa Malaysia is definitely no cure. In all probability, the teacher’s inadequacy stems from the fact that as a student, he or she did not receive as English based education, hence the inability to express himself in English as a teacher. Hence, it is critical that we realize this is a self-propagating cycle that must be broken. And if not now, when? Simply put, reverting back to Bahasa Malaysia for Science and Mathematics will only compound the problem, not solve it.

With this is mind, I see absolutely no reason for reverting the medium for teaching Science and Mathematics back to Bahasa Malaysia. Proponents of the move might justify it with the most recent examination results, in which it was shown that many students chose to answer the papers in Bahasa Malaysia, compared to English, or that students generally performed better when the Science and Mathematics was taught in Bahasa Malaysia. However, I believe this issue is closely entwined with the competence of the teacher. Given time and proper training, the teachers should become familiar teaching in English, and the performance of students should follow suit.

Returning again to the original vision of the government in its 2002 declaration, the situation has not changed. It is still imperative that Malaysian students are well equipped for the globalized world. Knowledge is power, but practicality helps a great deal as well. To be brutally honest, Bahasa Malaysia has no value where Science and Mathematics are concerned. In the world today, a large portion of the advancements in technology are carried out in English. Hardly anywhere in the world is research being done where Bahasa Malaysia is the language of instruction. For this reason, it is totally impractical to further the teaching of these subjects in Bahasa Malaysia. Countries such as Japan and Germany are still able to maintain the teaching of Science and Mathematics in their own native tongues because it is of some use. These countries are bustling hubs for research and development of new technologies, while Malaysia, unfortunately, does not even come close in this regard.

However, one cannot doubt the role of Bahasa Malaysia as a unifying subject, as common ground on which the races can build their foundations of harmony. As the national language, it will be used for the teaching of most of the non-science subjects, but with the continuation of English based Science and Mathematics subjects, a healthy balance of both languages can be introduced, and hopefully this will encourage a proliferation of English proficient students.

In recent years, many of our local graduates have found difficulty in getting employed, chiefly because of their poor command of English. If we examine this retrospectively, we find that these are the students who have been subject to a wholly Bahasa Malaysia based syllabus. As a result, there is practically no room for the development of their oral and written English skills. They may be able be score A1s for their SPM English, but in reality any grasp of a coherent sense of the language is lost to them. A language is not something that can be mastered through the teaching of the language alone. Consistency and regular usage are necessary to be English proficient. At least, with a few subjects taught in English, students will have to read, write and speak it on a regular basis, which will help them better grasp the language.

For the reasons I have stated, I wholeheartedly advocate the teaching of Science and Mathematics in the English language. In a world being shaped by rapid globalization, we cannot deny the fact that English has become one of the most important languages in the world. Teaching in English will not result in the corrosion of our culture and our national language. Let not misguided patriotism blind our judgment. Let us not politicize our education, as it has been oft done in the past. All we want is for Malaysia to advance as a country, and I believe it begins with education.




Hai, it's me agein.

Remember, COMMENT, COMMENT, THINK, THEN COMMENT AGAIN.

Tenkiu very much :)

Saturday, September 13, 2008

The Imminent End of The World

edit:

A little Ben told me that there's actually a website you can visit to check if the LHC has destroyed the world yet. Keep yourself updated! Click HERE, HERE and HERE to visit.





Early this week something happened up in France/Swisscheeserland that was bound to shock, excite, made you scareded, or potentially bore, but mostly excite everyone in the world. Yup, they turned on the LHC on Tuesday. Didn't do anything spectacular or smash things up at really high speeds, just turned it on.

Well, the main reason I'm so happy that they invented the LHC machine-collider-dude-thing is because it's could screw a lot of things up! Yeah, selfish, I know.


Some complicated looking part in the LHC. Well, don't ask me what it is!

Quite basically, the LHC is the Large Hadron Collider. They don't collide 'Large Hadrons' in a Collider, they just collide Hadrons in a 'Large Collider'. Confusing, I know. They make little particles fly around happily at speeds nearly reaching the speed of light (which is superbly fast, mind you), until they collide into each other and they're not so happy anymore. Then they kinda blow up and the little bits and pieces fly all over the place. Then they look at the little bits and say things like 'Ahah! This squiggly line proves that the Higgs boson exists!' and then they'll go publish it in the papers and get lots of money for it. That's the essential theory of it, lah.

Right, anyway, some people are worried that the LHC will make little black holes things that will magically expand in size and gobble the world up. Fear #1 - The world gets totally screwed.

Besides that, the current model of the atom, called the Standard Model, might also get screwed if we find out that the Higgs boson doesn't acutally exist. But if it does exist then that might prove the Standard Model, but not necessarily. But if they can't find it, then they'll have to rethink almost everything about the current atomic model. Or if we find something totally weird in the BANG BANG experiments, the model might be totally disproven altogether. It's all very confusing, but let's forget that now and let ourselves get deluded by the 'appeal to authority' fallacy (that means we believe whatever the scientists say because they claim to be smart-pants-scientists). So Fear #2 - The Standard Model gets screwed.
Either way, if the world or the Standard Model gets messed up big time, I'd still be happy. You see, my IB exams are in 53 days (and counting) and to put it in the simplest term(s):

DIE lah.

So really, if the world meets it's calamatystic fate because some little hadrons beat each other up, I won't have to sit for my exams!

If the Standard Model of the atom is proven (at best) wrong or (at worst) partially incorrect and therefore dude for numerous revisions, hopefully the IB Organization will understand this and take out that part of our syllabus from the exams!

The world loses, but hey! IB students worldwide would rejoice.

Alrighty, back to trying to study.

Monday, September 8, 2008

And we've waited 51 years to get here

I know I haven't been blogging for some time, but I'm really not my usual self right now, so I'll just be talking a bit about the Malaysian political scene (yes, again).

For those who don't follow the happenings, I'll quickly bring you up to speed.

Recently, during the Permatang Pauh by-elections, both BN and PKR were campaigning like mad to woo the voters. Obviously, Anwar won. Even our former premier, Dr. M thought so. During the whole campaigning frenzy, a local UMNO assemblyman got a little too excited and made a bad boo-boo.

"Bukit Bendera Umno division chief Datuk Ahmad Ismail had called the Chinese pendatang (immigrants) at a ceramah prior to the Permatang Pauh by-election."

Source: The Star (3 Sept 08)

  1. Soon after, the Chinese based parties (Gerakan, MCA, etc) start complaining about his 'alleged' remark.
  2. Najib apologizes on behalf of UMNO.
  3. Chinese leaders don't buy it.
  4. Ahmad Ismail pulls a disappearing act, so not even the PM can find him. Then he remains elusive for some few more days.
  5. He returns and says something stupid that totally screws everything up.
Essentially, he refuses to apologize for his 'pendatang' comment, effectively snubbing the UMNO leaders (Abdullah and Najib). He then insists the newspapers who reported the issue should apologize, for taking his comments 'out of context'.

You know, a lot would have been resolved if he had just said sorry there and then, instead of 'allegedly' going for a sepak takraw match (I bet he spent those days cooking up a good reason for saying what he did). But NO, he had to drag it on and on, trampling on whatever rapport the nation has built among the races. Honestly, I can't help but feel a little hurt by what he said. It's not only insensitive, it's especially idiotic considering his arguments are somewhat weak. It's not too hard to see that he's just beating round the bush, trying feebly to turn the tide back on the Chinese people (who've just been snubbed pretty badly, mind you) by playing the oldest trick in the book, the 'Ketuanan Melayu' issue.

I'm a bit pissed to be thinking coherently now, so I realize my arguments aren't really going wherer they should be. But ARGH! I can't help but feel that whether Ketuanan Melayu or not, what he did was absolutely intolerable (non-sequitur, my reasoning today, sorry that).

What infuriated me more was an article I read on Malaysiakini today:


"Penang Umno leader Ahmad Ismail, the man at the centre of the ‘racial slur' controversy, warned Chinese Malaysians not to mimic American Jews who not only seek to control the country's economy but also its political power."


Dude, it's not like the Jews were there FIGHTING and DYING for the independence YOU now share. GAH, the idiocy really irks me! And then:

"Earlier, Ahmad told the minority Chinese not to go overboard in hurting the feelings of the Malays and Muslims. "I want them to know, I want them to take this as a warning from the Malays. Malays and Muslims have been provoked many times. We have been patient because we want to maintain stability in the country," he said. "Remember! The patience of Malays and Muslims has its limits. Do not push us to the wall, where we will be forced to reject the Chinese for the sake of our survival."

Oh sure, he's the one making idiot comments, and he's warning the Chinese not to hurt the feelings of the Malays and Muslims.
Really, words almost fail me here. I was just furious that anyone could even be this dense. Any semblance of peace we had between races doesn't seem to get into that head of his. Why does he think every other Chinese person wants to usurp the rights of the Malays, or that we want to take over Malaysia and turn it into Singapore? Obviously, the Chinese don't wish to get along peacefully with their fellow countrymen, and they obviously don't want the best for the country that they and their families live in. After all, they're only SQUATTERS (and ONLY since the pre-independence era).
How can you tell someone who has known only life in Malaysia that he is a 'pendatang'? In fact, the Chinese (and Indians, at that) have been shorter-term 'pendatang's than the Malays, who are in fact 'pendatang' to this land themselves! But let's not go there. The point is, after all these years of 'Independence', it's so frustrating that so many are still not 'Independent' of their own thick-headed bigotry. After 51 years, after generations of Born and Bred in Malaysia Malaysians, we still have bigots calling other people names.
These are the issues 'true' racists harp on all the time, and yet he has the nerve to brand himself as a not-racist.
In the same press conference from which I quoted previously, the Malay leaders went really gung-ho about snubbing the Chinese.
"The press conference, which was held at the Penang Umno headquarters this afternoon, ended with shouts of ‘Hidup Melayu' from about 50 local party leaders who were there.
Soon after the event, former Penang Umno committee member Zainol Abidin Hashim, with the help from his colleagues pulled down the photo of Gerakan acting president Dr Koh Tsu Koon which adorned one of the walls in the party headquarters.
Koh's picture frame, which sat next to the photos of the Penang governor and his wife, was subsequently smashed.
As the glass broke into pieces, Zainol removed Koh's photo from the frame and tore it into half.
Koh, who is former Penang chief minister, has been trading barbs with Ahmad, the Bukit Bendera Umno division chief, over the issue."
They were even kind enough to include photos of the peaceful gathering.
Hidup Melayu, bangkit kebodohan?
But really, I don't make any sense, and you can totally discount whatever I've said (or tried, at least). I'm only a kid of the kid of the kid of a 'pendatang', so technically my arguments are already inferior to that of a 'lesser-pendatang', for what it's worth.
I'm sorry if I offend anyone, I'm just really, really angry. I can't think of another word for it.